Class indecisiveness

I have played a guardian right through to max level and I find it alright, although not as rewarding as I had hoped, and have now decided to start working on another class however I can't decide what it should be, I really like aoe type attacks coupled with a little survivability, I played the ranger a bit in beta and enjoyed it but found its ability to dish out repeatable aoes was lacking, I also have a thief for spvp which I like a lot but I tried starting one and didn't find it great for pve, I recently started a condition necro as I thought this would be great aoe with some survivability, although as I started gathering the skills I would need I found it incredibly repetitive, is it like this In the long run?

I guess what I'm hopeing to get is some peoples opinions on the classes they play, why they like it? Can it deal damage? Can it take damage? Is there much aoe? Are there many options for variation?

I have played a guardian right through to max level and I find it alright, although not as rewarding as I had hoped, and have now decided to start working on another class however I can't decide what it should be, I really like aoe type attacks coupled with a little survivability, I played the ranger a bit in beta and enjoyed it but found its ability to dish out repeatable aoes was lacking, I also have a thief for spvp which I like a lot but I tried starting one and didn't find it great for pve, I recently started a condition necro as I thought this would be great aoe with some survivability, although as I started gathering the skills I would need I found it incredibly repetitive, is it like this In the long run?

I guess what I'm hopeing to get is some peoples opinions on the classes they play, why they like it? Can it deal damage? Can it take damage? Is there much aoe? Are there many options for variation?

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help me make up my mind

If you want AoE + survivability I really recommend Elementalist.
Only a handfull of its skills are single-target, with other words it has loads of AoE.

Secondly it's a very versatile profession, you can go full damage and wreak epic AoE damage on enemies, but you can also go support/control and protect your team mates.

Elementalist as a survivable profession... whaaat?
It's THE most squishy one of them all. Coming from a guardian, prepare to die, a lot! Elementalists are fun of course but most certainly not sturdy (especially at low levels). Do give it a try, but go at it with a completely different mindset than your guardian.

Larger amounts of AoE is somewhat rare to come by though. Obviously the elementalist has a lot of that. Thing is, you rarely get pitched against large amounts of foes. AoE is nice, but often you want more focussed damage. Most elementalist use sceptre and dagger or double dagger for solo action, and that has less AoE.

Still, if it's AoE and survivability you want, I'd suggest looking into either necromancer which has a very sturdy mechanic and places wells and marks for AoE damage and control, or the engineer which can do pretty much everything but always slightly inferior to more specialised professions.

look into a kit engineer. Bomb heals build is decent damage and really survivable, grenades offer 1500 range when traited and can easily stack bleeds better than a shortbow ranger, and traited flamethrower can give you as much defense rating as a heavy armor class along with keeping up 6 stacks of might for free. All damage with these is aoe in 3 different ranges - melee with bombs, medium range (600) with flamethrower, and the 1500 range on grenades gives you as much range as a traited longbow ranger or rifle warrior.

Engy seems to offer everything you want. Are you the absolute best at any of these? No, but you can hold up to any of the other classes respectively in any role you want to play, and the amount of options are insane compared to anything outside of an ele due to attunement switching, and be nowhere close to as squishy as an ele.

Currently have 5 characters @ 80. Elementalist, Mesmer, Necro, Guardian and Ranger.
Spend most time on my elementalist using staff, because of the 4 attunements, perma swiftness, the massive AoE dmg and combo fields this is one of the best characters for group play (Dungeons, Fractals, WvW)
My friends always want me to bring my elementalist to the party

Found Guardian rather boring but I guess I'm not a melee player. BTW: Blast finisher on hammer rules! yeah
Ranger is ok but much less AoE and much less group support compared to the other options.
Mesmer is fun shattering them illusions gives good AoE dmg, some nice support here aswel (still less compared to an Ele)
Necro is also awesome IMHO. Though perhaps because of no 4 attunements a little less versatile compared to ele.
But the conditions, epidemic, staff skills, wells and minions do make up for that loss.
Really enjoy playing necro. Love the way he looks and love the skill animations and spreading conditions with epidemic rocks!

But perhaps thats becouse in GW1 I mostly played Ranger with Broadhead arrow + epidemic (which was a mesmer skill FFS).
Awesome had so much fun playing that.....

My Advice would be Ele 1st and Necro 2nd.

Haven't really played the other classes yet so can't say anything about those.
next up to 80 wil be my engineer though

I can recommend Warrior. While it lacks in range, it's melee AoE is high enough to shatter Zhaitan's big toe. HIS BIG TOE. They can take a pounding, have high pools of health so condition damage doesn't affect you much, and have tons of damage increasing skills + survivability boosters.